40 THROUGH CENTRAL BORNFIO 



continuously. Frequently sunlight sccnicd approaching, 

 but before I could procure and arrange my camera it had 

 vanished, and light splashes of rain sounded on my tent. 

 This was trying, but one cannot expect every advantage 

 in the trc^pics, which are so beautiful most of the year that 

 I, for one, gladly put up with the discomforts of a wet 

 season. 



Rain-storms came from the north and northeast; 

 frqm our high point of view, one could see them approach- 

 ing and hear the noise of the rain on the top of the jungle 

 manv minutes before they arrived. A few times, espe- 

 cially at night, we had storms that lasted for hours, reach- 

 ing sometimes a velocity of eighty kilometres an hour. 

 The trees of the jungle are naturally not exposed to the 

 force of the wind, standing all together, so those surround- 

 ing our clearing seemed helpless, deprived of their usual 

 support. Some smaller ones, apparently of soft wood, 

 which had been left on the clearing, were broken, and the 

 green leaves went flying about. On one occasion at dusk 

 Banglan stood a long time watching for any suspicious- 

 looking tree that might threaten to fall over the camp. 

 Torrents of rain fell during the night and we could barely 

 keep dry within our tents. The rain was more persistent 

 here in the vicinity of the lower Kayan than in any other 

 part of Borneo during my two years of travel through 

 that country. 



White-tailed, wattled pheasants (lobiophasis), rare in 

 the museums, were very numerous here. This beautiful 

 bird hns a snow-white tail and its head is adorned with 

 four cobalt-blue appendages, two above and two under- 



